Devin Nunes urges Trump to declassify docs 'first thing' after Rosenstein report
by Daniel Chaitin
| September 23, 2018 11:31 AM
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said Sunday the "first thing" President Trump should do, given the reporting on Deputy Attorney Rod Rosenstein floating the idea of removing him from office, is to recommit to last week's order to declassify Russia-related documents.
After making a declaration Monday to have these documents declassified and Russia-related texts from officials, including FBI Director James Comey, released, Trump reversed course by the end of the week. In a pair of tweets Friday he announced that after meeting with DOJ officials warning that the move could be perceived as tampering with the Russia investigation and hearing concerns from "key allies," that he would leave it to the DOJ inspector general to review the documents.
In an interview with "Fox and Friends Weekend," Nunes, R-Calif., was asked to respond to the New York Times report Friday that said Rosenstein talked about secretly recording Trump and invoking the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to oust the president after Comey was fired in May 2017. Rosenstein has denied considering such actions, and follow-up reports said he was being sarcastic or joking about the wire.
"If they're talking about wearing wires, 25th Amendment, but they have no evidence of Trump colluding with Russians from some of the top investigators — we now know that from text messages — this is really an investigation in search of a crime," Nunes said, referring to testimony by former FBI lawyer Lisa Page that investigators could not prove there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia when Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel last year.
Asked how Trump should react, Nunes said: "The first thing he should do is declassify all the documents that we have been asking for."
Nunes is among a smattering of conservative lawmakers who have pushed for the release of these documents and more, claiming they will show bias against Trump at the highest levels of the DOJ and FBI. Some of the documents covered in Trump's order relate to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant process seeking the authority to spy on onetime Trump campaign aide Carter Page, who had suspicious ties to Russia. Those warrant applications have already been made available to the public, but in redacted form. Nunes noted that Rosenstein signed off on it.
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